Whaddaya Know: Stanley Ann Dunham of El Dorado was Wild Bill Hickock’s distant cousin. What else was noteworthy about her? (Answer p. 6)
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Vol 40 • No. 6
May 2019
Senior council shifts from advice to advocacy
Kay Glynn and Claire Overstake compete in the 2018 Heartland Games.
Games of the heart
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By Joe Stumpe You could get tired just watching Claire Overstake at a track meet. Her specialty is running – especially sprints and hurdles – but she also throws the shotput and javelin, competes in the 200, 400 and 800-meter events and learned to pole vault when she was 50.
“Everything, I guess,” Overstake said when asked to name her favorite event. “Except I really don’t like distance” races. The 62-year-old middle school teacher and other seniors will showcase their athleticism during this year’s Heartland Games, which take place See Heartland, page 2
By Joe Stumpe A group of seniors charged with advising Sedgwick County commissioners is embracing another role – advocacy. Whether they can persuade the county commission to increase funding for aging services after years of flat budgets or small increases remains to be seen. At the last two monthly meetings of the Sedgwick County Advisory Council on Aging, members and guest speakers spent considerable time talking about the need for more aging services and how the advisory council could help make that happen. It is, council members admit, a change of pace for the body, whose members are appointed by county commissioners. For as long as current members can remember, the council has exercised little or no input into how much county tax money is raised for aging services and how that money is spent.
“For me personally, it took me two years to figure out why I was there,” said Jim Burgess of Derby, who’s been the council’s most outspoken member. County Commissioner Jim Howell seems to have gotten the ball rolling with his appearance before the advisory council in March. “To the extent we haven’t funded (aging services) in the past, it’s been based on comments that we don’t have the funds available,” Howell said. “I would challenge that. We’ve grown the budget by $25 million over the last couple years.” Howell pressed for more county funding for senior centers the last two years but was outvoted by other commissioners. The commission ignored, and then finally scrapped, a performance agreement with the centers that should have given them more money for meeting certain goals. See Advocacy , page 6
Book it: Volunteers move, spruce up library By Teresa Bachman LEON – What can a handful of senior citizens with a small budget in a tiny town do? They can mobilize a whole community and revitalize a local resource. Leon sits in southeast Butler County just off US 400. As with most small towns, it struggles to make a positive impact in the lives of its 700 residents. Recognizing the importance of a local library for education and entertainment, an English teacher, Helen Marshall, along with members of the General Federation of Women’s Clubs started the first Leon Public Library in 1940. For years, it moved from one location to another, finally settling in the city offices on Main Street. When a new elementary school was built west of town, the old school
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Older residents spearheaded the Leon Public Library's move from cramped quarters to a former school. central office, but it was later moved was torn down with the exception of to where the schools are located. It the gymnasium, locker rooms, lunch and band rooms. For a while, part was became a storage space and slowly deused for the Bluestem school district’s See Leon , page 7
Central Plains Area Agency on Aging or call your county Department on Aging: 1-855-200-2372
Butler County: (316) 775-0500 or 1-800- 279-3655 Harvey County: (316) 284-6880 or 1-800-279-3655